Here’s a question for pro-lifers (and others, too) in the reading audience:

If you had a choice between public media (print, tv, radio) that permitted no abortion ads or PSA’s, either promoting choice or life, or having it be open season for whatever group or corporation wanted to advertise or throw up a PSA, which would you choose?

Naturally, the extremists on the issue would opt for their view and the censorship of the opposing, but for the sake of this exercise, which would benefit the pro-life effort more: all or none?

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About catholicsensibility

Todd lives in the Pacific Northwest, serving a Catholic parish as a lay minister.

11 Responses to Life and Choice in the Media

Why does the desire to censor falsehood make one an “extremist”?
I can see why it makes one an “extremist” from the view of an American, but why is it “extremist” from the view of a Catholc?
Ever hear of the Index?
In any case, given the nature of the society we live in, I’d rather see both sides represented than none at all. But all of that presumes attention to secular media and advertising.

I guess I’d rather see no ads at all on either side. Ads tend to be manipulative and I think it would be better for people to get their info on the subject in other ways like the news or educational sites.

I think ads would be more beneficial to the pro-life side. It’s pretty hard to make a case for the pro-abortion viewpoint in light of a presentation of basic facts (as opposed to dead fetus pictures and bible quotes) about abortion.

I appreciate the question. Personally, I’d like to hear less in Catholic media on positions. I want to hear and read far more personal witness to how Our Lord reaches out to touch us on our own road to Damascus.

My wife and I had our first ultrasound at 9.5 weeks this past Friday. My heart leapt when I was able to clearly see my developing baby’s arms, legs, and heartbeat. That same day, I had talked to my mother and heard that the only “view” she had of me during her pregnancy was to hear my heartbeat (I’m 36). I started to think about the advances in medical technology over the last 3-4 decades, and how strongly I had felt and connected when I had SEEN my growing baby that day.

Let all those that desire to show “PSAs” (call them what you will) do so. In the end, our own scientific advances should make the option of abortion as a reasonable alternative increasingly difficult to defend. I think we see some shifts in attitude now in the high opposition to partial birth and late term abortion. If advances do not prompt serious change, I truly will mourn what our culture will have become in the next 3-4 decades.

With advances, I believe the explicit “Catholic” pro-life argument will likely move away from abortion to the act of artificial contraception. Some may argue that this should be the core of the entire argument, and we see contraception as a core issue in some treatments of Pope John Paul II’s “Theology of the Body” teachings. We also see this argument now in the Pope Benedict’s recent visit to Africa

Just to be explicit, I am not stating that anti-abortion efforts are not without merits. However, there are deeper and broader integrated pro-life discussions that should be had amongst Catholics. Sadly, any outcomes of these discussions will not be amenable to 15 second sound bites on the evening news…but “whoever has ears ought to hear.”

I am someone who was away from the faith for a long time. Upon returning, reconciling my views about life issues and abortion were challenging, yet over time and with much teaching, love, prayer, community and support I have reconciled.

For the record, I never had an abortion; I have never been pregnant. I think that for good or ill, this is a factor in the way many frame this issue.

I say all this because I think of my own journey to the truth… One that as I said took some time and a lot of love.

Shaming, finger-wagging and so forth would never have made a dent in my heart. Grace typically, in my experience anyway, takes a much different path.

Also I think it is important to ask why women choose abortion. Someone recently barked at me when I posed that rhetorical question and said it doesn’t matter.

Frankly, I think it does matter to the discussion, for all sides.

This constant pushing Catholics who may see otherwise away from the table seems completely antithetical to the Jesus I know and love and to the way that the Truth has expressed itself in my life.

It is always scary to write about this. When I tell my story rather than move some it seems to elicit a lot of finger wagging and shame spew that I once did not believe and know what I do know and believe today.

“Naturally, the extremists on the issue would opt for their view and the censorship of the opposing”

Extremists? Virtue appears as the extreme to those who are sympathetic to vice. I’ve never ran across anyone yet who spoke of pro-lifers as extremists who when scratched beneath the skin wasn’t pro-baby murder.